Cold
by VentXekart
Summary: This is a rewrite of an X-Universe short I wrote years ago when I was getting into the games (More Specifically; X3: Terran Conflict). It's a brief story from the perspective of an individual Xenon drone.


**Cold**

* * *

The X-Universe was home to many beings; traders, mercenaries, adventurers, explorers, pirates, soldiers, and more. They could be a member of one of the several sapient races inhabiting the galaxy; The Hyper-capitalist Reptilian race that was the Teladi, the Earth-born humanoid Terrans and their long-lost interstellar cousins that were the Argon and the Aldrin, The wise aquatic beings that were the Boron, The three-eyed religious zealots of the Paranid, and the War-Like super-humanoids that were the split. Despite their differences, their interactions could vary with one another depending on political, economic, and diplomatic trends. Battles and wars were not unheard of considering the number of mercenaries, pirates, and other violent factions that were more than willing to pick a fight with one another if given the opportunity...or if someone crossed their palms with credits of course.

There were two exceptions to this rule; The First were the Kha'Ak; a race of hostile insectoids that were encountered several years ago after they launched attack after attack in territories of the various inhabitants of the X-Universe. The main cause for this being the mining of Nividium; a noble and rare metal that was worth hundreds of credits and the Kha'Ak were more than willing to wage war and conflict to defend deposits of Nividium regardless of the intentions.

The other exception was the Xenon; these machines were originally terraforming robots built by the Terrans many centuries ago after they had invented their first JumpGates and began expanding beyond the borders of their solar system into deep space. While originally built for terraforming worlds for future settlement and habitation by mankind, they were built to evolve and unfortunately their inventor had decided to alter their original programming. The war against the terraformers and mankind lasted for decades with the terraformers eventually reaching Earth. In a desperate gambit, a fleet of Terran Starships lured them through the last known man-made JumpGate and then destroyed it. While the Terrans were beginning the slow reconstruction following the war against the Terraformers, the Terraformers had inhabited several sectors of their own and had been constantly evolving since then with their Xenon descendents developing various levels of self-consciousness and self-awareness to this very day...

* * *

_Cold, that is all I feel. Whether I am one with a Xenon Q or I am traveling through the dotted void I only feel my artificial frame gliding through the nebulas and dust particles of this endless Dimension._

_I am a member of beings that will purge organic bacterium from even the deepest bowels of this world. We do not touch the rocks that are the breeding grounds of the foul infestations that pollute this whole universe we were once designed to create; we are only here to purge them._

_The thoughts that went through my silicon-lined mind were interrupted as soon as my comrades sensed bacterium-infested bulkheads. My comrades were part of the Xenon; our purpose (including my own) was to destroy larger bulkheads and organics, these in particular belonged to the Khaak who were currently unaware of where we were hiding in the fields of floating gas._

* * *

**ENEMY UNITS DETECTED**

**RACE: KHAAK**

**UNITS: 4**

**-KHAAK SCOUT*2**

**-KHAAK FIGHTER*2**

**WEAPONRY:**

**-KYON EMITTER BEAM*4**

**-MOSQUITO MISSILE*10**

**THREAT ASSESSMENT: 50%**

**ENGAGE IMMEDIATELY**

**PROBE: PROTOCOL A449-NINER**

**EXPUNGE: PROTOCOL X001-DELTA**

**END.**

* * *

_I jumped the first of the Khaak ships by flying behind them and then vaporizing one of them with a burst of rounds from my Gauss Canon, ripping it to shreds. I killed the Khaak in approximately 3.96 seconds. The next member of my confluence followed and launched a glowing blue metallic streamlined projectile at one of the Khaak. It was a Poltergeist Missile, a cluster missile developed by our former creators. It split into several more projectiles and ended the Khaak's existance with a loud boom that destroyed its vessel in at least 5.68 seconds._

* * *

**UNITS EXPUNGED*2**

**CAUSE OF DEATH:**

**-KHAAK SCOUT-GAUSS CANON ROUNDS**

**-KHAAK FIGHTER-POLTERGEIST MISSILE**

**END.**

* * *

_Immediately I saw one of my comrades sliced in half 5.79 seconds ago by a long beam of purple light; An Alpha Kyon Emitter, one of the mainstay energy weapons used by the insectoids that could do massive amount of damage especially when used by large groups of their vessels. My fellow drone was destroyed before it even had a chance to process the enemy's attack. I turned towards the enemy unit but before I could destroy that Kha'ak vessel, one of my own comrades got accidentally miscalculated its pounce and collided with its prey, thus destroying both of them. There was only one member of the Kha'ak left in this field of stars._

_I watched as it 'limped' towards my body but before the pilot could plot an attack aimed at me, I launched a firelance missile at it. The detonation caused a large field of flame to fly outwards until my body felt the impact. However, I felt no pain, as I only saw blackness and the tattered remains of my bulkhead but feeling nothing but the freezing cold of my mechanical form and the void of space as everything faded away._

* * *

**SYSTEM RECOVERY ONLINE… BEGINNING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC… PROPULSION SYSTEMS: INTACT**

**OFFENSIVE REACTION SYSTEMS: INTACT**

**DEFENSIVE REACTION SYSTEMS: ERROR**

**RETRY…**

**DEFENSIVE REACTION SYSTEMS: INCAPACITATED**

**END**

**BEGINNING CARGO BAY SCAN…**

**BOOST EXTENSION**

**SETA**

**GAUSS CANONS*2**

**FIGHT PROGRAM MK 2**

**FIRELANCE MISSILES*4**

**BETA PULSE CANONS*2**

**GAUSS CANON AMMUNITION*250**

**END**

**REBOOTING…FAILED**

**RETRY…FAILED**

**CRITICAL SYSTEMS ERROR: SYSTEM RECOVERY FAILED**  
**INITIATING SYSTEM SHUT DOWN…**

**END PROGRAM.**


End file.
